Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to continue the discussions on the Supplementary Estimate for Vote 38. I and my officials have taken on board the discussion at our engagement last week. We also noted the specific queries made by committee members. In this regard, my officials have supplied an updated brief to the committee, which I understand was received last Friday. The brief included a more detailed exposition of the drivers of the requirement for a Supplementary Estimate, as well as further briefings on specific issues raised by the committee. These were in regard to the National Ambulance Service and capital expenditure, and additional briefing was provided yesterday on the State Claims Agency and the pandemic recognition payment. Additional issues were raised that were not directly pertinent to the Supplementary Estimate but it is very important that they be addressed. Briefings on these are being prepared by my officials and will be provided to the committee in due course. There are several of these, including future cost projections for the State Claims Agency associated with clinical negligence cases, an update on the national maternity hospital new build, a note on new arrangements for GPs in regard to CervicalCheck screening, a note on e-health expenditure and a note on broader HSE expenditure on information and communications technology, specifically including costs and budgets associated with the roll-out of two specific HSE projects: the integrated financial management system, which we discussed at some length last week, and the national integrated pay records and pay programme.

I now seek the committee's approval for the Supplementary Estimate of €1.392 billion for Vote 38.